Two Afghan Vice Presidents Accused of Atrocities

Senior officials in the Afghanistan government have been named in a special human rights report detailing atrocities that took place during the 1980s and 1990s.

Compiled over six years, “Conflict Mapping in Afghanistan Since 1978” accuses 500 Afghans of mass killings. Among those accused are two men who have served as vice president to President Hamid Karzai.

The government’s first vice president, Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim, reportedly told Karzai to fire Ahmad Nader Nadery, the man in charge of the report. In fact, Fahim was quoted as saying that dismissing Nadery was too good for him. “We should just shoot 30 holes in his face,” Fahim said, according to The New York Times.

Another person blamed for atrocities was Second Vice President Karim Khalili, a Hazara leader from the Wahdat Party. Other top officials implicated were General Atta Mohammed Noor, the governor of the important northern province of Balkh, where one mass grave was found, and General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who holds the honorary title of chief of staff to the supreme commander of the Afghan Armed Forces.

At least 180 mass graves were uncovered by the research team of forensic specialists working on the report.